homemade whole wheat dutch oven bread

I made bread for the first time ever. I found an easy bread recipe that requires lots of rising time and no kneading. The bread is baked in a preheated dutch oven. I've made several whole wheat loaves now, and it's going well. I'm looking forward to trying different flours soon too.

The first loaf didn't look so great, but it tasted good. The loaves since this one have looked much better.

Whole Wheat Bread

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1 1/4 tsp table salt
1/2 tsp instant or dry active yeast
1 1/3 cups cool water
additional flour for dusting

Directions:
In a medium bowl, stir together flours, salt, and yeast. Add water. Using your hands or a wooden spoon, mix until you have a sticky, wet dough. Cover bowl and let sit at room temperature until the surface is bubbly and the dough is more than doubled in size, 14-18 hours.

When the first rise is finished, generously dust a work surface with flour. Scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece. Using lightly floured hands or a spatula, lift the edges of the dough in towards the center. Tuck in the edges to make it round.

Generously dust a tea towel with flour. Place dough on towel, seam down and dust top lightly with flour. Fold towel loosely over dough and place in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 2-3 hours. The dough is ready when it is almost doubled. The dough should hold the impression when pressed with your finger. If it springs back, let it rise for another 20 minutes.

Half an hour before the end of the second rise, preheat the oven to 475 F with a rack positioned in the lower third, and place a covered 4 1/2 – 5 1/2 quart heavy pot in center of rack. Remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Unfold the tea towel quickly but gently invert the dough into the pot, seam side up. (Remember the pot is hot. Be careful.) Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.

Remove the lid and continue baking until the bread is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15-20 minutes.

Makes: One 10-inch round

recipe source

chicken cooking and meal ideas

Here is an example of what I do with a whole chicken:

1. Cook the chicken.
I have 2 ways I like to do it depending on what kind of time I have--roasting and crock pot cooking.

Roasting a whole chicken.
I use a 9x13 pan and a rack from my toaster oven turned upside down (because I don't own a roasting pan). I take the chicken out of its bag and put it straight onto the rack-pan combo, breast side up. I don't wash it first. All the bacterial is going to get cooked, so it seems to me that rinsing the chicken is just going to potentially contaminate more of my kitchen with salmonella. But I am careful about washing everything that touches the raw chicken with soap and warm water-- including the sink and soap dispenser after I finish washing my hands. I usually rain salt over the chicken in the pan, then put it in the oven, preheated to 350. I cook the whole chicken for 20 min per pound plus 20 additional minutes.

Crock pot cooking a whole chicken. 
I use the same health safety precautions when handling the raw bird. This time it goes straight into the crock pot, breast side up. This way works with either a frozen or fresh chicken. I sometimes sprinkle salt on top, but I've mostly stopped doing that. I cook it on high for at least 4 hours. I keep an eye on it after 4 hours to see when I want to turn it off. I basically just wait til it looks thoroughly cooked. I know this isn't super safe, but I haven't had any trouble cooking it this way. I do err on cooking it a little too long, because in the crock pot, it just gets more tender, not dry. If you aren't comfortable cooking poultry this way, don't do it. Easy enough. I prefer the crock pot over roasting because it makes the next step easy..

2. Make chicken broth by boiling the bones and drippings with a generous amount of water. I usually refrigerate the broth before using it so I can get the fat off the top and throw it away.


3. Make/ cook meals from the meat. I usually get at least 2 meals with 2-4 servings each. Suggestions:

--Just chicken (best the same day I cook it).

--Chicken salad.

--Chicken enchiladas.

--Chicken pot pie (I usually make a version with a biscuit topping rather than making pie crust).

--Tex-mex chicken casserole.

--Chicken tetrazzini.

--Chicken on salad.

--Chicken sandwiches or wraps.

--Chicken chili.

--Pizza with chicken.

4. Make soups from the broth. In the summer I use the broth to cook fresh veggies, but we have soup a lot more in the winter. I also use the broth to make cream of chicken soup for cooking. Sometimes I'll chop up and throw some chicken in the soup too. I get at least 2 pots of soup, 4 servings each. Suggestions:

--Chicken noodle

--Vegetable soup with chicken broth base

--Green soup. I don't have a good name for it, but I use tomatillos, cilantro, black beans (if I planned ahead) or lentils (if I didn't), and sometimes corn. And of course other spices.

--Veggies, lentils, and curry.

--Chowder of some sort, like potato or corn.

--Various beany chili recipes.

It looks like I get 4 meals, each with about 2-4 servings from cooking one whole chicken. Of course, I'm adding veggies, beans, cream soup, spices etc to make the dishes, and we eat appropriate sides with a lot of them. But the chicken is a good/ cheap starting place for lots of different kinds of healthy meals.